© 2015 Wichtg Publishing EJO ISSN 1120-6721 Eur J Ophthalmol 2015; 25 (6): 529-534 ORIGINAL ARTICLE choroidal neovascularizaton secondary to pathologic myopia (myopic CNV). Neovascular AMD and DME are responsible for over 50% of patent registratons for severe sight impairment worldwide (2-4). This increase has been driven by a combi- naton of an aging global populaton and the introducton of new treatment modalites, including ant–vascular endothe- lial growth factor (ant-VEGF) therapies such as ranibizumab, bevacizumab, and afibercept (5, 6). In patents with myopic CNV, neovascular AMD, and DME, ranibizumab treatment results in superior outcomes, such as improved visual acuity, relatve to earlier interven- tons (e.g., photodynamic therapy or laser photocoagulaton) (7-10). However, ant-VEGF therapies have increased the clinical workload, because more patents meet the eligibility criteria for these therapies than for the earlier interventons; ant-VEGF therapies also require more frequent administra- ton and follow-up (5-11). As with most invasive treatments, there are safety risks associated with intravitreal injectons of ant-VEGF agents, such as endophthalmits (12). Many clinicians report that the preparaton of ranibizum- ab intravitreal injectons is tme-consuming (data on fle); the DOI: 10.5301/ejo.5000629 Ranibizumab preflled syringes: benefts of reduced syringe preparaton tmes and less complex preparaton procedures Eric Souied 1 , Sylvia Nghiem-Bufet 2 , Claudia Leteneux 3 , Sascha Bayer 4 , Audrey Derveloy 5 , Alexandros Sagkriots 3 , Guido Becker 4 , Salomon-Yves Cohen 1,2 1 Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal Créteil, Université Paris-Est, Créteil - France 2 Centre Ophtalmologique d’Imagerie et de Laser, Paris - France 3 Novarts Pharma AG, Basel - Switzerland 4 Q_PERIOR AG, Zurich - Switzerland 5 Novarts Pharma France, Paris - France Introducton In recent years, there has been a signifcant increase in the number of patents who require and are eligible for treatment of retnal conditons (1), including visual impair- ment due to neovascular age-related macular degeneraton (AMD), visual impairment due to diabetc macular edema (DME), visual impairment due to macular edema following retnal vein occlusion (RVO), and visual impairment due to ABSTRACT Purpose: A recently developed ranibizumab preflled syringe (PFS) eliminates several preparatory steps versus the standard vial-based method, and is expected to reduce syringe preparaton tme (SPT) and enhance proce- dural simplicity for intravitreal injectons. Methods: Syringe preparaton tmes for the ranibizumab PFS and vial were recorded during standard treatment sessions at 2 centers, without randomizaton. The duraton of each step in preparing the syringe was recorded. At each center, total SPT (mean total duraton of all syringe preparaton steps) for each method was compared using a 2-tailed t test. Results: In total, 97 SPTs were analyzed across both centers. Center 1 SPTs were 46 seconds (PFS) versus 75 sec- onds (vial; diference, 29 seconds; p<0.001). Center 2 SPTs were 46 seconds (PFS) versus 63 seconds (vial; difer- ence, 17 seconds; p<0.001). This equates to a 27%-39% reducton in SPT when using the PFS rather than the vial, resultng mostly from the reduced number of syringe preparaton steps associated with the PFS. Conclusions: Syringe preparaton tmes for ranibizumab intravitreal injectons are signifcantly shorter with the PFS than with the vial. The tme saved by using the PFS may beneft physicians and nurses, and the simplicity of the injecton preparaton process with the PFS is advantageous. Keywords: Ant-VEGF therapy, Intravitreal injectons, Preflled syringe, Ranibizumab, Syringe preparaton tme, Vial-based syringe preparaton Accepted: April 27, 2015 Published online: May 18, 2015 Corresponding author: Eric Souied, MD, PhD Head of Department of Ophthalmology Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal Créteil 40 Avenue de Verdun 94000 Créteil, France eric.souied@chicreteil.fr